Foreign policy

With the failure of attempts to incite revolution abroad, the communist high command adopted in 1920–21 a two-track foreign policy. On the one level it engaged in regular diplomatic relations with any “capitalist” country prepared to deal with Soviet Russia. Following the signing of a British-Soviet trade agreement in 1921, other powers entered into commercial relations with Soviet Russia as well. Diplomatic recognition followed. The United States was the main holdout, refusing recognition on the grounds that the communist regime routinely violated accepted norms of international behaviour. Absence of diplomatic relations, however, did not prevent Americans from carrying ... (100 of 37,975 words)